sunset from behind the wire

Monday, October 1, 2018

The USS Decatur sailed near two Chinese man-made islets lands in the South China Sea. On 30 September:

“The guided-missile destroyer USS Decatur conducted a freedom of navigation operation. Decatur sailed within 12 nautical miles of Gaven and Johnson South reefs in the Spratly Islands.”

All US military operations in the area “are designed in accordance with international law and demonstrate that the United States will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows”.

The image of Johnson South Reef is a year old. I included it in this item because it is one of clearest that shows the extent of Chinese investment in the seven man-made islets it has reclaimed and occupied.

Prior to Chinese reclamation, this reef was above water only at low tide. As shown, the islet has an area of 27 acres or .043 square miles. Press sources claimed that Gaven and Johnson South Reefs also have air defense weapons.

This was the first US Navy transit within 12 nm of these two islets since the Chinese expanded national borders to include them, hundreds of miles from Chinese shores (about 800 miles in the case of Johnson South Reef). They took that action because they were certain that the Obama Administration (the "bowing president") was too anemic to do anything about it. They certainly had the measure of the man.

There have been at least 10 US and Allied naval transits of Chinese claimed waters in the South China Sea this year, including a transit of the Parcels by HMS Albion in August. In addition, US and allied aircraft have overflown the South China Sea and drawn Chinese protests. The most recent was a B-52 flight last week.

The US and allied transits inside China’s 12 nm territorial sea are conducted under conditions of “innocent passage”. According to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea Naval (UNCLOS) combatants may transit territorial waters without permission if they are making an innocent passage, which includes not conducting military training, launching aircraft and not firing weapons.

Transits in open sea areas of the South China Sea have included live fire training and flight group training by aircraft carriers.

The Chinese insist that warships must obtain Chinese permission to transit the South China Sea. Chinese ships have challenged US, Japanese and Australian ships, but the likelihood of a confrontation at sea is slight. The Chinese are not reluctant to scramble aircraft, however, with a risk of accidents or incidents.

All American political Parties are corrupt. The Principal Parties (Democrat and GOP) man the ramparts of the swamp, by which they can become fabulously wealthy. (i.e. Barack Obama entered the White House with a couple hundred thousand dollars in the bank and left with well over a billion).

The Libertarians seem to focus on how cool it would be to do drugs and not get arrested. However when it comes to who will care for the millions of shiftless, brain-dead druggies, they waffle on the answer and betray their anti-government sentiments.

The Communists/Socialist/Nazis and the Green Party are more morally bankrupt than the Democrat Party and you have to work hard to become that.

Creepy old groping Joe Biden receives his sexual predator
award.

And President Trunp - running as a Republican but not taking their advice - screwed up the system that has been carefully crafted for so long. It's no wonder that the corrupt, elite, sly, media (Voice of the Swamp) hate him. There are a lot of people who were betting their political futures on Hillary Clinton and an extension of the Clinton Dynasty. Just look at the long list of foreign donors that Hillary arm-twisted into contributing to the Clinton Foundation in the hopes of gaining political influence. The nation was on the auction block and then President Trump won - and it wasn't anymore.

The Republicans, who built their personal fortunes on campaign contributions against the Democrats no longer had an enemy (other than Donald Trump). The political patronage that had become endemic in the pay-to-play Obama Whitehouse suddenly ended.

But fear not, Satan's Vaticans (Harvard, Yale, etc.) continue to turn out lawyers who know what's good for you. From within political office, they can take your money and "help you" and they're confident that they will win in the end.

Science Nerd Corner:

Plate tectonics have kept Earth's core molten and spinning. The arrangement makes massive radiation belts possible and their influence makes life on Earth possible. So understanding how they work, how they formed, etc. is interesting to creationists and evolutionists alike.

Plate Tectonics

A new study suggests that plate tectonics -- a scientific theory that divides Earth into large chunks of crust that move slowly over hot viscous mantle rock -- could have been active from the planet's very beginning. The new findings defy previous beliefs that tectonic plates were developed over the course of billions of years.

The paper, published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, has important implications in the fields of geochemistry and geophysics. For example, a better understanding of plate tectonics could help predict whether planets beyond our solar system could be hospitable to life.

"Plate tectonics set up the conditions for life," said Nick Dygert, assistant professor of petrology and geochemistry in UT's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and coauthor of the study. "The more we know about ancient plate tectonics, the better we can understand how Earth got to be the way it is now."

For the research, Dygert and his team looked into the distribution of two very specific noble gas isotopes: Helium-3 and Neon-22. Noble gases are those that don't react to any other chemical element.

Previous models have explained Earth's current Helium-3/Neon-22 ratio by arguing that a series of large-scale impacts (like the one that produced our moon) resulted in massive magma oceans, which degassed and incrementally increased the ratio each time.

However, Dygert believes the scenario is unlikely.

"While there is no conclusive evidence that this didn't happen," he said, "it could have only raised the Earth's Helium-3/Neon-22 ratio under very specific conditions."

Instead, Dygert and his team believe the Helium-3/Neon-22 ratio raised in a different way.

As Earth's crust is continuously formed, the ratio of helium to neon in the mantle beneath the crust increases. By calculating this ratio in the mantle beneath the crust, and considering how this process would affect the bulk Earth over long periods of time, a rough timeline of Earth's tectonic plate cycling can be established.

"Helium-3 and Neon-22 were produced during the formation of the solar system and not by other means," Dygert said. "As such, they provide valuable insight into Earth's earliest conditions and subsequent geologic activity."

Housekeeping

As of January 1, 2017 this blog began to receive anonymous posts. I try not to delete them, but if you want to be taken seriously here, you need to identify yourself, if only by some sort of cryptonym.

Welcome to Virtual Mirage

"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.

"Oh, you can't help that," said the cat. "We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad."

"How do you know I'm mad," asked Alice?

"You must be," said the cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."

Good Morning

Virtual Mirage - What's on the other side of the mirror? Ask Alice how deep the rabbit hole really goes.

This blog is an extension of MY JOURNEY because sometimes my journey needs more explanation, and sometimes there is more to be said than can be expressed on one ordinary blog.

Sometimes it's politics (very serious), sometimes I address the human condition with a dose of humor, and other times it may seem as if the track is headed in a unique direction. I can be a complicated guy at times.

There are a few things you'll find I consider:

* Absence of proof is not proof of absence.

* Sometimes the questions are complex but the answers are simple.

* Love is the only condition where the happiness of another person is essential to your own.

* Steers do not sign treaties with meat packers. (think on that)

* Taxes are NEVER levied for the benefit of the taxed.

* The purpose of fighting is to win. There is no victory possible in defense.

WHITE POWDER (Novel)

There is something intoxicating about a secret.

THE OLD WHORE (NOVEL)

In the peculiar culture of the Central Intelligence Agency, "old whores" are people who will do whatever it takes to get the job done, irrespective of the cost.

EXILES FROM EDEN (NOVEL)

Sparks fly as two star-crossed lovers meet. He runs toward trouble as she yearns for something missing. And it ends in a flight from and toward justice.

About Me

Today, I balance work and play as much as anyone can. All things remaining equal, play is more important. Life is short - it's important to make every day count for something, if only to yourself.
I'm a former tinker/tailor/soldier/sailor who has now decided that maybe it really wasn't all done for nothing.

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